My Delightful Journal

 How often is your reply "No thank you" to the question, "Do you want your receipt?" when you're at the grocery store or fast food. You need to STOP! You're throwing away money! I've had multiple people ask me about which websites and apps I use to earn money back on receipts. Some I use, you can also do small tasks like take a survey or watch an ad. All these little things really add up! For the majority of them, you'll need some type of smart phone.  Take a look down below! 1. Swagbucks I'm starting with this one first because capturing receipts is only one of its many features! You can take surveys, watch ads, answer questions, play games, and make purchases through Swagbucks for money back! This is easily used on the desktop, and there's an app to upload receipts as well.  Head HERE   to sign up! Earn an extra 300 SB (Swagbucks) when you earn 300 points within your first 30 days. 300 SB = $3 gift card. You can easily get that within the f

This post contains affiliate links, in which I earn a small commission at no cost to you. So thank you for looking, shopping, and sharing! <3  I've followed Crystal Paine ( The Money Saving Mom ) since Aaron and I have been married. She has great tips for living on a low budget, and we needed that when we were first married. So she always intrigued me.  Her oldest kids are only teenagers, so she never claims to know everything about parenting. I appreciate her fresh approach to parenting and coming strictly from the heart. She shares some of the background of her legalist mindset as a new mom and equates that into how it affected her parenting style.  I find that fascinating because it's a temptation for anyone to want to hear, "Hey, you raised some good kids" or "Congrats on your son's/daughter's accomplishments." But is   that the goal of parenting? Is raising "good kids" to be "good adults" the pinpointed accomplishment? It&

This post contains affiliate links, in  which I earn a small commission at no cost to you. So thank you for reading & shopping!  Human trafficking is not a problem "somewhere else." It's happening right where you are. You might see someone who is trafficked when you head to the grocery store or go to a local baseball game and never realize it.  Jasmine Grace found herself in desperate need for love and acceptance. She thought she found that through her "boyfriend," who ended up selling her for money. After years of prostituting herself, she covered the pain she never realized she had with drug abuse.  Thankfully, like many human trafficked victims, her story doesn't end with a gun shot or a drug overdose. Her story still continues in the saving grace of Jesus Christ. She recollects her different diary entries during her trafficking years from a fresh perspective as now a believer. She spends her life helping other women who are in the same situation.  I

 How many emotions have you felt today? Anger, guilt, joy, love... Maybe you felt multiple at one time or maybe you've felt too many to count.  "Ugh, she spilled her cereal again." "Aw, that picture is so cute!" "Why does he always degrade me in our weekly office meetings?" "This coffee is my favorite, yum!" We, as humans, are made up of many parts. We can honor and glorify God with our bodies. He gives us the ability to think and reason through situations. And He also gives us inward feelings and emotions to use as another guide source.  I have always viewed my emotions as intrusions. They were either causing me to worry and fret about something unnecessary or pushing me to love something of this world that I really should let go. I had never once viewed my feelings and emotions as a help in a decision making process or an indicator to slow down. And if I couldn't control my emotions, I at least needed to shove them out of the way.  But

My five year old Chloe is starting to get interested in board games. She's starting to play them enough that she can tell when she's losing and can become quite frustrated in this realization. Suddenly, she remembers! The rules that we'd somehow forgotten. She devises these rules that aren't actually "new," but we just forgot that's how to play. Of course, these new rules help her to get ahead in the game.  What would a game be without rules? Complete chaos!  Eek, what would a road be like without stop signs, speed limits, or traffic lights? I'd start riding a bike.. but probably still wouldn't be very safe.  Rules protect us and others from getting hurt.  Even the Bible has a list that could be classified as "rules." Ten Commandments The Ten Commandments were given to Moses at Mt. Sinai. You can read more about them in  Exodus 20 . Israel also received other laws and commandments.  1. Moral laws - God has already instilled inside each pe

  This post contains affiliate links in which I earn  a small commission at no cost to you.  Thank you for looking and shopping.  Why does that quote make so much sense yet is so hard to believe? We've all struggled with this. Whether it's been a loved one we've lost or has suffered, whether it's been a broken relationship because of political arguments, whether it's been fear of the unknown, or whether it's been annoyance of the inconvenience - everyone has been touched through this pandemic.  John Piper doesn't waste his time (see what I did there... Piper's  Don't Waste Your Life ... He didn't waste his time... anyways...) in this little book. He skips past the ever changing number of cases, moves on from the political drama, and takes a step away from the medical implications or lack thereof.  I don't desire to mislead you. There are plenty of facts  in this book. Facts from the Bible. There's no exaggeration that he uses 184 Scriptur

  This post contains affiliate links in which I earn a small commission at no cost to you.  Thanks for shopping and looking!  Woohoo! I finished book two of 2021! That doesn't sound like many, but some of you know that I'm on a reading journey. If you want to learn more about how I'm trying to read more, you can check out  this post . I don't want to spoil the book... but... I'm fascinated by Hudson Taylor's beginning years. His parents prayed that if they had a son that he would one day become a missionary to China. He would say as young as 9, 10, or 11 years old, "Mom, Dad, when I get older, I'm going to be a missionary to China." His parents had not pushed him toward this thought or even mentioned their prayers to him.  His teen years consisted of apathy toward God and somewhat of a disbelief of ideas he'd been taught his whole life. However, when God a hold of his heart - he couldn't resist the pull to this particular people group.  Hud